Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest eBook

‘Oh yes,’ said the man in black; ’he
has done good service to our See, that is, in his
way; when the neophytes of the Propaganda are to be
examined in the several tongues in which they are destined
to preach, he is appointed to question them, the questions
being first written down for him, or else, he! he!
he!—­Of course you know Napoleon’s
estimate of Mezzofante; he sent for the linguist from
motives of curiosity, and after some discourse with
him, told him that he might depart; then turning to
some of his generals he observed, “Nous avons
eu ici un exemple qu’un homme peut avoir beaucoup
de paroles avec bien pen d’esprit."’

‘You are ungrateful to him,’ said I; ’well,
perhaps, when he is dead and gone you will do him
justice.’

‘True,’ said the man in black; ’when
he is dead and gone, we intend to erect him a statue
of wood, on the left-hand side of the door of the
Vatican library.’

‘Of wood?’ said I.

‘He was the son of a carpenter, you know,’
said the man in black; ’the figure will be of
wood for no other reason, I assure you; he! he!’

‘You should place another statue on the right.’

‘Perhaps we shall,’ said the man in black;
’but we know of no one amongst the philologists
of Italy, nor, indeed, of the other countries inhabited
by the faithful, worthy to sit parallel in effigy with
our illustrissimo; when, indeed, we have conquered
these regions of the perfidious by bringing the inhabitants
thereof to the true faith, I have no doubt that we
shall be able to select one worthy to bear him company—­one
whose statue shall be placed on the right hand of
the library, in testimony of our joy at his conversion;
for, as you know, “There is more joy,”
etc.’

‘Wood?’ said I.

‘I hope not,’ said the man in black; ’no,
if I be consulted as to the material for the statue,
I should strongly recommend bronze.’

And when the man in black had said this, he emptied
his second tumbler of its contents, and prepared himself
another.

’So you hope to bring these regions again beneath
the banner of the Roman See?’ said I, after
the man in black had prepared the beverage, and tasted
it.

‘Hope!’ said the man in black; ’how
can we fail? Is not the Church of these regions
going to lose its prerogative?’

‘Its prerogative?’

’Yes; those who should be the guardians of the
religion of England are about to grant Papists emancipation,
and to remove the disabilities from Dissenters, which
will allow the Holy Father to play his own game in
England.’